As she walked toward one of the inner buildings, a dark and elderly Hindu woman appeared before her and beckoned her toward an arched-over court, which led to a rear building, saying at the same time: “Come right through here.
The Master awaits you.”
Berenice followed the woman through a shattered segment of wall, past some broken bowls scattered about a few logs which were evidently used for benches.
The Hindu woman then pushed open a large, heavy door, and Berenice, after removing her shoes, stepped across the threshold.
Her eyes fell on a dark, lean-faced, lengthy figure, seated, Yogi fashion, on a large white cloth in the center of the room.
His hands were folded between his knees as though he might have been praying.
However, he neither stirred nor said anything, merely turned on her his deep, almost black, penetrating and searching eyes.
And then he spoke:
“Where have you been?” he asked.
“It has been all of four months since your husband died, and I have been expecting you.”
Startled by this inquiry and his attitude in general, Berenice involuntarily receded several paces as though she were truly fearful.
“Do not be frightened,” said the Guru.
“Fear has no place in Brahman, the Reality which you are seeking.
Instead, daughter, come and be seated.”
And he waved a long thin arm toward the white cloth on which he was sitting, indicating the corner of it which she was to occupy.
As she sat down, he began to speak. “You have come a long way to find that which will give you peace.
You seek your own Samadhi, or your union with God.
Is that not true?”
“Oh, yes, Master,” replied Berenice, in great wonder and awe. “That is true.”
“And you feel that you have suffered greatly from the ills of the world,” he continued.
“And now you are ready for the change.”
“Yes, yes, Master, yes.
I am ready for the change.
For now I feel that perhaps I have injured the world.”
“And now you are ready to repair that injury, if possible?”
“Oh, yes; oh, yes!” she said, softly.
“But are you ready to devote some years to this labor, or is this a passing interest?”
“I am ready to devote years to the study of how I can repair the injuries I have caused.
I want to know.
I feel that I must learn.”
Her voice was anxious.
“Yet that, you know, requires patience, labor, self-discipline.
You become great by obeying that which Brahman teaches.”
“Oh, I will do anything that is necessary,” said Berenice.
“It is for that purpose I came.
I know I must learn to concentrate and meditate in order to be wise enough to repay or even repair.”
“Only he who meditates can realize truth,” said the Guru, as he continued to study Berenice, until at last he added: “Yes, I will take you as a disciple.
Your sincerity is your admission to my class.
You can attend tomorrow the class in breath control.
We will discuss high breathing, mid-breathing, Yogi complete breathing, nostril breathing.
Holding the breath is like holding life in the body.
It is the first step. And this is the foundation on which you will build your new world.
Through it you will achieve non-attachment.
You will lose the suffering that comes from desire.”
“Master, for rest of the spirit I would give up many things,” said Berenice.
The Guru paused for a few moments of silence, and then he began, almost solemnly:
“The man who gives up living in fine houses, wearing fine clothes, and eating good food, and goes into the desert, may be a most attached person.
His only possession, his own body, may become everything to him, and as he lives, he may be simply struggling for the sake of his body.
In truth, non-attachment does not mean anything that we may do in relation to our eternal body.
It is all in the mind.